


Holding Pattern

by Andraste



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-30
Updated: 2007-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 01:30:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/48248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andraste/pseuds/Andraste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Starscream does maintenance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Holding Pattern

From Starscream's point of view, the battle was not going well. It was not enough that Megatron had yet another idiotic plan involving crystals that the Autobots were well on the way to thwarting. Now Starscream was actually being _trodden_ on by a Dinobot. The quarry rang with the sound of another Decepticon defeat, and he could feel the dust getting into his works.

From what he could see of the battle from this awkward angle, his comrades in arms were not faring much better. The ground shook with the force of Rumble's earthquake, which was causing as much inconvenience to the Decepticons as it was to the Autobots. Without his instruction, Thundercracker and Skywarp were completely failing to provide adequate air support, and the cowardly Insecticons had already fled. If Starscream could have moved at all, he would have engaged in a strategic withdrawal.

He had done some research into the subject, and apparently the Dinobots had been modelled after long-extinct Earth reptiles. While their stupidity was legendary, Starscream couldn't doubt their military prowess while a metallic triceratops was grinding its foreleg into his arm. Starscream lay writhing under the creature's weight for much too long before it was abruptly lifted away. Pushing himself up onto his knees with his undamaged hand, he watched with pleasure as Devastator scooped up the Autobot and flung it away in one fluid movement. Starscream forced himself to his feet and assessed the damage to his arm. The housing was badly crushed and his paint job was a disaster, but the internal damage didn't seem too serious. At least the Auto-dolt had been too stupid to think of breaking his wings.

"Starscream!"

He turned to see Megatron already half way through his transformation and barely managed to catch him in time with his one fully functional hand, turning to fire on the Autobots. Starscream smiled with satisfaction as the annoying yellow one cried out in pain and went down. At least this expedition hadn't been a total waste of time.

***

"How much longer is this gonna take?"

"I could work faster if you'd stop asking."

Despite his orders, Skywarp squirmed again and Starscream lost hold of the broken relay he was trying to remove. Being relegated to menial repairs was always frustrating, but the other Seekers tried his patience more than the rest. Today he had less than usual - he'd only had time to do emergency repairs to his own arm, and it was difficult to perform delicate procedures with only one hand. Reaching into Skywarp's housing once more, he yanked hard on the wire until it snapped off.

"Hey!" Skywarp yelped. "You're not meant to be making things worse."

"If you could sit still for five astroseconds, I'd not only be able to repair you, I could improve you."

"I don't need improving."

"I beg to differ. If you'd allow me to experiment, I'm sure that you could teleport more than once without draining your batteries."

"I don't want you poking around my circuits any more than you have to," Skywarp said. "Just fix my relays and close me up."

When Starscream was finally in charge of the Decepticon army, the first thing he was going to do was shut Skywarp and Thundercracker down and upgrade them to make them more energy efficient. What was the point of teleportation or concussive sonic booms that sapped their energy reserves almost instantly?

"Hey, Skywarp," Thundercracker said, appearing in the doorway to the workshop. "Isn't Screamer done with you yet?"

On second thoughts, he might not bother upgrading them. Or turning them back on.

"How can I be expected to get any work done under these conditions?" Starscream asked, throwing his sonic lance to one side.

"You know what they say about poor workmen." Tensing, he turned to see Megatron framed in the other doorway.

"It isn't merely my tools that are inadequate," he said, crossing his arms, "it is my patients. Is there a reason you're interrupting me?" The reason was blindingly obvious, but he went through the familiar routine anyway.

"Thundercracker, Skywarp, you may leave us now." Skywarp clicked the housing back over his exposed relays and obeyed Megatron without a word of argument. His fellow Seekers might be stupid, but there weren't suicidal - and if Skywarp's targeting system malfunctioned during their next battle, it would be entirely their glorious leader's fault.

Without an explanation - as if one were needed - Megatron stretched out on the bench in front of Starscream. Megatron had not been damaged in the battle, but his coating required a huge amount of attention. The silver metal showing up the slightest scratches and dints, and more often than not it was Starscream who got stuck with the never-ending polishing. He got out the sander and set to work.

Starscream watched Megatron cautiously for a sign of his mood. Often he would talk incessantly while Starscream worked, complaining about their latest failure or thinking out loud about his next scheme for achieving dominance over the Autobots. He would normally use a time like this to criticize Starscream's performance - on the battlefield or in the maintenance hanger, it hardly mattered - but now he was quiet except for the occasional sigh when the tool ran over a particularly sensitive spot. All went smoothly until Starscream reached a fiddly part of Megatron's shoulder. He needed to hold the joint apart with one hand and work the sander with the other, but it was a difficult task with one of them damaged. He winced as the sander slipped and fell, leaving another dent in Megatron's housing.

Starscream froze, waiting for the explosion, but it did not come. Instead, Megatron sat up and seized Starscream's damaged hand between his own.

"Hmmmmm," he said thoughtfully, examining the affected area. "Here," he said, reaching for the sonic lance. "Let me."

Starscream tensed instinctively as Megatron pulled the thin metallic skin away from the internal workings, but it didn't hurt. He raised the probe and simply shone it like a torch over the damaged area. Several of the fine wires in his left hand had been pulled loose and Starscream's autorepair functions had done little to remedy the problem. As a result, his fingers responded only sluggishly to the commands of his brain. With surprising delicacy, Megatron began welding the wires back into place.

Despite himself, Starscream began to enjoy having Megatron work on him. It was a fiddly operation to perform by one's self, and he rarely trusted his comrades in arms to do anything but the most essential maintenance on him. None of the other Decepticons were remotely qualified to deal with his unique and delicate systems, and he certainly wasn't letting that rebellious upstart Bombshell anywhere near him when his housing was open. Although he would never have admitted it out loud, Megatron was a more than competent repairman when he deigned to stoop so low. It was a pleasure to watch him work, drawing each filament precisely and fixing it in its proper place.

He should have known better than to allow the other mech to lull him into a false sense of security, but he still screamed in shock when Megatron seized the last disconnected wire - the most sensitive, of course - and pulled on it hard. The skin on his hand tore further as Megatron ripped it out of his arm and drew it toward himself.

Starscream jerked forward and instinctively braced himself with his good hand against Megatron's shoulder, and for once his leader allowed the indignity. His housing opened up like a black hole and he drew the wire inside himself, roughly splicing it to his own circuitry. Starscream gasped as the flow of electricity between them began.

Sometimes when they united Megatron's Spark would swamp him all at once, until he was unsure where he ended and Megatron began. Today, it was a prickling at the edge of his consciousness. Megatron always felt the same things when he joined with Starscream, mingled contempt and desire. Megatron was purity. Starscream's thoughts were confused - desire for Megatron, desire to _be_ Megatron, burning hatred, the grudging admiration he would never admit to aloud. They fed on each other until Starscream's sensors threatened to overload.

Megatron smiled as he pushed him away, and Starscream slumped to the floor, shuddering and sucked dry. Megatron calmly replaced his own casing. "I will expect you to attend a meeting tomorrow to discuss your failure in the field today," he said. He turned and left the room without another word.

Starscream lay on the floor for some time before he managed to turn over, pushing himself up on the wall with his undamaged hand, still shaking with the after-effects. The sensation was as overwhelming as ever. When he finally overthrew Megatron and reigned supreme over the Decepticon army and the universe, he had no idea how he would live without it.

***

Downing three energon cubes in a row did little to restore Starscream's equilibrium, and his mood didn't improve when he exited the workshop and found Thundercracker and Skywarp watching television instead of manning their posts in the control room. Megatron had forbidden them from using the big screen to view flesh creature programs, so they'd somehow acquired a primitive human monitor. On the tiny screen, some brightly coloured robots shaped like Earth mammals seemed to be having a fight.

"Thundercracker!" he said. "Raise the tower, I wish to leave."

His underling didn't even do him the courtesy of looking away from the display. "Don't get your circuits in a twist, Starscream. I'll let you out during the next commercial break."

That was the last straw. Starscream raised and fired his null ray, which made short work of the TV set.

"You glitching slag!" Thundercracker yelled, leaping to his feet. "They were half way through a fight!"

"If you don't want me to shoot _you_, I suggest you obey an order for once in your existence!"

"C'mon, Thundercracker," Skywarp said, inserting himself between the two of them. "We have to go steal another TV anyway."

Even more disgusted than usual with his fellow Decepticon, Starscream waited impatiently for the tower to rise through the water. He leapt into the sky, transformed and soared, leaving the ocean and the planet far below.

***

Earth only had one pathetic moon, a bare rock left undeveloped and practically untouched by the primitive natives. Starscream could reach it in minutes, and it was a convenient place to sit when he didn't want to be disturbed by Decepticons or annoying flesh creatures.

Finding a convenient crater to perch on, he took out a probe and began working on his hand. It was finicky and absorbing work, and it took him far too long to register the approach of another Transformer. His radar quickly told him that it was the person he least wanted to see, but he hesitated, reluctant to flee from a single foe. As he waited, the decision was taken from him. He got to his feet and braced himself to fight or fly, optics fixed on the Autobot who appeared on the horizon.

Skyfire transformed into robot mode as he landed, and he actually had the gall to smile. "Hello, Starscream," he said. "Fancy meeting you here."

"I warn you, Autobot, if you have come to fight -"

Skyfire help out his hands, palms up. "I don't think an orbiting rock is worth getting into argument over, do you? I just like to sit up here sometimes."

It didn't surprise Starscream that Skyfire had the same impulse he did. When they had worked together, they had often taken off from Cybertron and simply flown until they found somewhere quiet, away from the noise of several thousand robots sharing one small planet and two moons.

"I can understand why you would want to get away from that undisciplined rabble you call comrades in arms," Starscream conceded.

"The 'undisciplined rabble' kicked your afterburners today."

"The ultimate victory will be ours."

"Not unless you commander gets over his obsession with mining crystals and building doomsday weapons."

The were debating the point the way they used to argue about whether the amphibious inhabitants of Rigel 4 were truly intelligent or just unusually competent nest builders. He knew that he should attack or leave, but neither reaction felt correct. Unconsciously, Starscream rubbed the place where the wires in his left hand were exposed, discomforted.

Noticing the damage, Skyfire got down onto his knees, and reached over to take Starscream's arm. "Here - let me help you."

"Why would you want to repair _me_?" Starscream asked, incredulous.

"It's not as if you can do it properly yourself; you don't have enough hands."

Starscream couldn't think of a sensible objection to that, so he just held out his hand. Skyfire was obviously too soft and stupid to think of sabotaging him, and he was hardly going to ask Megatron to do it when he went back.

"So," he said, taking up the probe and efficiently remedying the damage Megatron had done, "you really prefer fighting beside people you can't stand to working with me? Primus, I remember the way you used to complain about Skywarp and Thundercracker back on Cybertron."

"Yes, I do prefer it." Starscream said shortly.

"I don't understand you, Starscream. What would you Decepticons _do_ with the universe if you took it over?"

"You're right - you don't understand." This was why he knew that the Decepticons would win, no matter how long it took. The Autobots only fought because they had been forced to. Decepticons fought because they were made for war.

"After millions of years, you have nothing to show for all the destruction you have caused. I find it hard to believe that conducting an endless, pointless war makes you happy."

The truth of it was, it _did_ make him happy, happier than anything in his existence before he met Megatron. Starscream had not volunteered for long-range planetary survey missions to spend more time with Skyfire, whatever the Autobot might think. He had been restless, searching for something he did not know the name of. The first time he had fired his weapons in anger at another Transformer, he had found it.

"That is because you are an Autobot. I am finally doing what I was programmed for."

"Is that all we are? A string of programmed functions? You do have a choice."

Starscream pulled his hand away from Skyfire. The job was complete enough that his autorepair program could take over. He would only have to paint over the wound when he returned to base. "That will be sufficient," he said.

Skyfire looked hurt. "You might at least say thank you."

"I don't thank Autobots."

Skyfire shook his head and stood up. "I should have known better than to try talking to you at all. You are nothing but a Decepticon drone."

He turned and transformed, back exposed to his enemy. It was a stupid incaution, and Starscream raised his nullray to fire. Incapacitated and alone, Skyfire would be an easy kill, and destroying such a powerful Autobot would raise him in Megatron's favour. He felt the thrill of having a vulnerable target in his sights rush through him. In moments like this, he knew why he had been created.

Then he lowered the weapon. He was not, after all, a string of programmed functions or a drone. When he killed Skyfire, he wanted to see the look on the Autobot's face.

Starscream watched Skyfire soar towards the pathetic Earth, heedless of the enemy behind him, and felt the excitement of an imminent kill drain away. He sat and watched the planet below rise for a long time before he turned for home.


End file.
